


Entwined

by VaultOfMelkurMistress



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/F, Healing, Hurt/Comfort, Pain, Regret, Reunions, Then fluff, because you know me by now I hope
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-18 04:34:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29112384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VaultOfMelkurMistress/pseuds/VaultOfMelkurMistress
Summary: Missy is dying, 13 saves her. Thrissy  hurt/comfort. <3She screamed in anger, tears hidden by the rain that saturated every pore of her skin. Exhausted from her needlessly wasted energy - risking her final moment to be screaming and crying as the ashes and burning embers of what she had built were extinguished by the ever falling winter rain.She didn’t want to end that way. She didn’t want to end at all.
Relationships: Thirteenth Doctor/Missy
Comments: 2
Kudos: 26





	Entwined

**Author's Note:**

> I hope this makes someone out there happy - it's a Thrissy hurt/comfort and it was really good to crawl into and write. I do right by them, as always. Thanks for reading, it means a lot <3 
> 
> ps - there is no regeneration, so if like me, that moment for Missy is upsetting, don't worry as that's not how this goes. <3

She took a sharp inward breath, her lungs failing her as she struggled to intake enough air to clear the dizziness flooding her mind. Dropping to her knees, she fell forward, her hands pressing against wet muddy ground as rain fell unnoticed, soaking and chilling her every cell. 

Despair and the horrible realisation of her plan going very wrong, hit her as the faint glow of regeneration energy appeared at her fingertips. She tried to push herself up and at least get to her knees once she realised that standing was highly unlikely, but her body was succumbing, cells preparing to shut down and prepare for the intensity of total cellular regeneration. 

She was not ready to leave herself behind. Not yet. Not for a long time yet. She wasn’t done. 

She screamed in anger, tears hidden by the rain that saturated every pore of her skin. Exhausted from her needlessly wasted energy - risking her final moment to be screaming and crying as the ashes and burning embers of what she had built were extinguished by the ever falling winter rain. 

She didn’t want to end that way. She didn’t want to end at all. 

She dropped forward, onto her hands and knees, slamming her palms into the slick mud over and over as she fought the inevitable while regeneration energy glowed brighter with each jolt the action caused in her tired and ailing body - until a sharp pain jolted through her as the glow faded before it abruptly ceased.

“No, no, no, no, NO!” she screamed, her voice hoarse and exhausted at the realisation that this was no longer a fight against losing herself, it was now a fight to survive at all. 

She braced her hands against the ground and screwed her eyes tight, blocking out the chaos and disaster surrounding her as she centered herself - every focus of her energy on preventing the inevitable. She had lived in a burned body before, she could survive this. It was just poison. Only poison. Poison that was shutting down her internal organs one by one until she wouldn’t be able to fight any longer. 

Her eyes fluttered closed as her world turned white and an intense shivering took over every cell of her being, her arms shaking violently as she focused on not slumping to the ground. 

She had tried. It had not been enough. She never could get it right. 

Maybe it really was all for nothing. 

In her hardest, loneliest moment, as she felt her strength ebbing away, her mind became filled with the sound of the Doctor’s TARDIS - she cursed herself that in her desperation, she would imagine him - but of course she would. Who else would bring her safety, security.

Hope. 

She started to laugh as she opened eyes and found the muddy ground much closer, her head bowed and her hair becoming caked into the wet earth beneath her. Her laughter turned manic as she realised her grip on reality was fading even faster than her physical body at the sound of a door opening and footsteps running over the ruined ground, closer and closer. Hallucinating. That was a bad sign, she knew that in some now distant, rational part of her mind, but she barely recognised such reasonable thought any longer.

She gave in to the fantasy as the sound alone took away the chill of the winter air and the small gasps of breath she was still able to make as her arms began to buckle. Warmth spreading throughout her mind and then her body as something shifted in the cold rain. Her body enveloped by another, a sudden barrier against the rain as she shook and pushed her back up instinctively against the new source of warmth, desperate and craving for relief from the utter resignation she was now rapidly falling into, despite everything in her screaming that she had to fight. 

“It’s ok,” came an unfamiliar voice, yet familiar all at once. 

Hands now over hers, energy that was not her own flooding into her in one short, sudden burst, just as intolerable pain tore through her confused and failing body.

“Gotta get you inside.”

Missy focused on the voice from behind her - clinging hard to the sound of reassurance as though forcing her way through fierce, angry flames to reach safety.

She was burning up now, fever taking over as she moaned in protest when the welcome warmth seemed to hug her tightly then retreat before hands were on her shaking arms, lifting her, scooping her into a tight, warm embrace, a hand wiping wet hair from her face and a kiss against the angry bruise on her forehead where she had fallen when attempting to run in futile from the reality crashing onto her impossibly hard and fast.

“Gonna have to walk Missy, I'll take as much of your weight as I can, but we weigh about the same this time round, not gonna be able to carry you. Can’t help you any more out here. This planet’s self destructing, gotta go. Come on, up we get.”

Missy groaned as she was hauled up. An arm around her waist and another around her stomach, hands clasped together, a determined attempt to support her weight. She leaned her body against the warm, familiar comfort of the person who she dearly wished was not a hallucination, her eyes closing as her head dropped to a now equally as wet shoulder. 

“No Missy, wake up, one foot in front of the other, you can do it,” said the voice which she did not dare to believe could be real, until a sudden jolt forced her eyes open while determined hands shook her. 

“Yep….awake...that’s me,” Missy said drowsily, as she slid her boots against the slick mud robotically, going through the motions while her eyes, clouded with rain and tears and blurry with exhaustion, made out the blue solid structure she was being led to. “You’re my favourite imaginary friend.”

“You’re awake Missy, let’s stay that way until I stabilise you - come on almost at my TARDIS.”

“Doctor?” she murmured, faint flutter in her hearts as she smiled briefly while her shaking arms took hold, fists gripping the material of unfamiliar clothes with a death like grip. 

“Missy,” the new voice said with a familiar mix of resignation that utter chaos and disaster had exploded at her own hand quite predictably. 

“I tried. I tried to be good and it didn’t matter, it didn’t matter...” she paused, taking a painful inward breath as she suddenly struggled from the effort of speaking.

“Don't talk, it’s ok, whatever you did, it’s ok, I’ve got you, almost there.”

“But I didn’t...I didn’t do anything bad…” Missy managed to blurt out before her breath rattled and she began to cough and tears flooded her eyes. 

“Shh, Missy please, don’t talk, save your strength and let me fix you up,” the surprisingly not judgmental or even disappointed voice of the shiny new Doctor said, as the rain ceased falling suddenly when they crossed the threshold into the reassuring hum of a TARDIS. “I got you.”

Missy remained firmly in the Doctor’s tight hold as her eyes flitted around the room, shuddering within the safety of the only person she truly trusted. The sudden loss of the rain seemed to send even stronger chills through her body and she slumped against the Doctor, tears falling fast.

Time became a blur as she was teleported into a medical room without delay. Suddenly her wet clothes were being peeled from her shaking body as she was gently pushed to sit back onto a bed and a blanket draped around her, a towel rubbing the dripping water from her hair as she began to smile through the pain, her mind beginning to slow down as she breathed the air of such familiarly. 

“Hey,” she said, a barrage of coughing preventing her from forming any further thoughts, let alone the words that desperately wanted to spill from her lips.  Instead she hastily grasped the hands that worked so fast to dry her, and were eager to reach for medical devices.

“Missy, let me help you, you're not out of the woods.”

“Just…” she paused, wincing in pain as she blinked the exhaustion from her eyes and focused on the blonde hair and lips pursed in worry and haste to continue. 

“Plenty of time to catch up once your vitals are stable,” the Doctor said.

“Just,” Missy whispered, her eyes meeting the Doctor’s own new yet so familiar ones. “One moment.”

The Doctor opened her mouth to emphasise the urgency of their situation, but could only utter a murmur as Missy’s still trembling hands took hold of her face and for the briefest of moments, their lips met, lingering, soft and yet still with the insistence of stealing the moment for themselves amidst the drama of the scene Missy had somehow created. The Doctor didn’t care about the details, hadn’t wanted and didn’t need explanations or apologies when she had stepped from her TARDIS and found her. She only wanted her oldest friend well and safe and in her arms without the urgency of her failing health. 

She closed her eyes, giving in for a fraction of a second, before regretfully breaking the moment as she forced herself to raise her hands to Missy’s wrists and pull her hands away. She grasped her shoulders as she eased her back onto the bed, placing a second blanket over her before she rushed off, returning moments later to replace the fleece with heated blankets and pads, intolerably mild for the chills shooting through Missy’s body. 

Missy moaned loudly in protest and cursed before pain coursed through her body and she rolled to her side, curling her legs toward her chest as she dug her fingernails into the soft linen of the medical bed, clawing and tearing at the sheets as she fought against her instinct to try and get up.

“Can’t warm you up too fast, not with these readings,” the Doctor said, as Missy clutched the blanket, pulling it tighter around her. “What am I fighting here Missy? Help me to help you.”

“Poison,” Missy said, grimacing in agony, her tears soaking the cotton fabric of the medical bed before she took an agonising breath and tried to speak again. “Vicious, poison.”

“Let’s take care of that then. Sleep Missy, it’ll be much easier that way. Let me give you something ok? Make this much more comfortable and when you wake up, bet you’ll be ready for tea.”

“Ok,” Missy whispered before battling hard to smile through the pain as she grasped the Doctor’s hand painfully tight. The Doctor nodded in relief and pressed a device quickly against her neck. 

She closed her eyes, feeling secure and safe and utterly relieved, her grip on the Doctor’s hand finally loosening as she faded quickly to sleep and the Doctor took a deep breath and figured out what she needed to do.

~~~~ 

Missy roused quite sometime before she opened her eyes - a long practised habit of remaining very still until she assessed the situation she was waking into - threats, time to form escape plans, it all took time and much could be overheard and learned by feigning an unconscious state until she had time to make a effective plan. It didn’t take long though, for her senses to be filled with the reassurance of familiarity - the faint instinctive hum and the smell of oil - a nearby component leaking or running on empty and burning fumes perhaps, a thud as something most likely fell to the ground. 

She smiled before she had even opened her eyes, realising that she had not been hallucinating at all, this was most definitely the Doctor’s TARDIS. 

She opened her eyes with a relieved sigh as she glanced slowly around the room, pushing herself up into a sitting position as her gaze fell on the Doctor, a book laying open on the ground beside her chair, in which she was curled up, fast asleep. She really did look quite adorable -  _ tired _ and adorable. 

From the lack of medical equipment surrounding her, she was assured that the crisis was over and she confirmed this by climbing out of bed and stretching her arms above her head, testing her lung capacity with a deep breath. She dropped her arms to her sides with a smile, the Doctor had done an exceptional job, even with her clothes - a long purple nightgown, lace at the top, and exquisite detail adorning the sleeves. Missy could tell instantly that it had been hand sewn - the Doctor had some wardrobe space that Missy fully intended to browse if hidden gems like  _ that _ were laying around unloved. 

She walked over to the Doctor, picking up the book and turning it to read the title - rolling her eyes as she placed it on the table beside her - smiling as the Doctor didn’t even stir. 

“Temporal Mechanics honey? Good job I’m here to sort out whatever you’ve broken  _ this _ time,” she said, her palm flat against the wall as she ran her hand along the warmth of the smooth surface that hummed under her touch. “Mummy’s here to fix you up, she’s very _naughty,_ always has been that one.”

Deciding to leave her to sleep, she had certainly worked hard to repair such intensive damage after all, so she _did_ deserve a good sleep - she wandered out. 

The Doctor’s TARDIS was obliging, a door further down the hall inching open to lead her to a kitchen. She smiled and patted the wall - it always did good to sweet talk a TARDIS, a bit of appreciation really did go a long way. She should know, she had been seeking it all her life it would seem, from her oldest friend - albeit with varying degrees of success.

She was amused at just how long the Doctor slept, still curled up on the chair by the time she had changed into her now dry clothes that she found hanging up in the Doctor’s closet. She had raised her eyebrow in amusement and given the room a suggestive smile - the Doctor's TARDIS clearly wanted to tell them something. 

“Honey,” she said quietly, as she bent down to whisper, inches from the Doctor’s face. “Wakey wakey, I made tea.”

“Mmm, tea,” the Doctor mumbled, shifting slightly, her eyes still closed and her hair falling over her face. 

Missy rolled her eyes in amusement and picked up a nearby scalpel, grimacing and deciding not to ask the Doctor if she had needed to use it on her. She perched on the edge of the bed, holding the scalpel up to the light and watching the rays of the artificial light bounce from the small but potentially deadly metallic blade. She really did enjoy deadly things. She also enjoyed the look on the Doctor's face that she tended to cause when playing with lethal objects. A look that was being cast in her direction as the Doctor opened her eyes to see Missy contemplating the blade with scrutiny.

Missy giggled at the sight of the Doctor - the now wide awake Doctor, who had jumped to her feet, hair messy and eyes wide with alarm. 

“Morning!" Missy said cheerfully. "What’s wrong? If you always wake up like that you really need some relaxation tips, that’s not good for your hearts at all.”

“Missy,” she said, her eye falling on the blade, a mixture of relief and concern which simply made her head spin. “Feeling ok?”

“Sure!” Missy said, dropping the scalpel back onto the nearby metal tray as she hopped to her feet and closed the distance between them. “Oh..did I worry you there honey? Oopsie. Sorry, I just really like shiny things. Especially if they’re sharp shiny things...should I ask if you had to cut me open?”

“No, just a clean cut to a tube into your lungs that got clogged with the toxin that was ripping through your major organs,” the Doctor said as her shoulders slumped when her own words reminded her of just how exhausted she was. “So nothing major or anything.”

Missy grimaced and reached to take hold of the Doctors hands, but was instantly pulled into her arms, the love and concern and relief flooding from her mind to settle with a loud hum at the edge of Missy’s mental barriers. Missy allowed it in, slowly and expertly sending a gentle rush of love back, reassuring the Doctor silently. 

“That was close Missy, don’t do that to me,” the Doctor said, the adrenalin she had woken with, calming fast as emotion swept through her. “You were in a very bad way.”

“Thank you,” Missy whispered, before placing a kiss against the Doctor’s cheek, her lips brushing against her skin as she pulled back with a smile. “You _saved me_ honey. Missed me?”

  
“Always,” the Doctor said quietly. “A call would have been less...traumatic. Stay? At least for a while? It's been..well I don't know how long it’s been, but I always know when it’s been too long. Tea?”

“It’s always been too long and beat you to it. Tea in a lovely garden I found - needs some weeding, we could do that, it deserves to be restored to its potential gorgeousness,” Missy said as she took the Doctor’s hand and led her from the room.

They walked side by side along the TARDIS corridor, Missy’s hand clapped with the Doctor’s as she contemplated how very right it all felt. 

“You’re quiet honey,” Missy said, as finally, they sat in the overgrown garden, weeds and ivy growing wildly and confidently tall around everything and anything it could cling to.

The Doctor glanced around as she joined Missy, seated at the small iron table - struggling to remember the last time she had been there - the garden had certainly become woefully neglected.

“You’re mulling over what I did to that planet and whether that was deserved, aren't you? You always do dwell on unpleasantness.”

“A toxin destroying your internal organs aggressively is never deserved Missy, it’s a brutal way to die,” the Doctor said. “It doesn't matter what you did - you deserved to survive. If you want to tell me…. you can, but I’m not going to push you.”

“Entertaining ideas to lock me up again? I suggest a music room or you could put a piano in this garden,” Missy said, glancing around in contemplation. “I’d have plenty to do for a few weeks before I started to badger you for tech.”

“Why would I lock you up? Even if you had destroyed that planet, locking you up wouldn't help anything,” the Doctor said with a sigh as she placed down her cup onto the ornate saucer she hadn't even realised she owned. “Missy -  _ stay. H _ ere with me, for a while or longer - your choice, just why not? How about it?”

The Doctor was fiddling with the handle of her tea cup, nervousness spilling out of her as her eyes flitted from the cup to Missy’s eyes. It was utterly adorable. Missy grinned. 

“You still don’t know if I enslaved the population and burned the planet to the ground while I danced in the ashes,” she said with a grimace.

“I’m asking you, regardless,” the Doctor said earnestly, as she reached across the table and took Missy’s hands in her own. “Nothing changes my offer and you don’t have to tell me anything, unless you want to.”

Missy smiled sadly, a tumultuous mix of happiness and sad regret filling her hearts. 

“I _ did _ destroy that population - many many lives ago. I returned, lived among them, healed their world. For years I took that society and made it better - engineered medical devices that improved their lives, cured the toxins I'd left behind all that time ago that had caused them to breathe poisoned air. I taught at their university - their society devoured knowledge and it was...Doctor they  _ thrived _ with my help. That was good, I knew that was good. That…. _ was _ good, wasn’t it?”

“Yes Missy,” the Doctor whispered, fearing the twist the story would undoubtedly have. “That was very good.”

“One day, the technology I introduced meant that they became very good at research….they discovered who I was, and I was arrested, put on trial and handed a death sentence. The entire civilization tore apart, a war broke out over what my fate should be. I tried to mediate but it was too late, it all exploded so quickly, until they overthrew the authorities and decided to serve sentence on me - the toxins taking far longer to destroy a Gallifreyan body than their own. I sent a distress call and a considerable number got out, the planet was dying from the fall out of the very unflattering war about me. You must have seen the same call.”

“I did, and I’m very glad I did. They left you there to die?” the Doctor said, appalled. 

“Well, sometimes, my past comes back to bite me in my rather shapely ass, and people really can be vicious.”

“You did do good Missy, even if ended like that, it doesn’t undo the good you did," the Doctor said, shaking her head in dismay and tightening her hands around Missy’s. 

“Complicated business, not sure I'll make a habit of it,” Missy said with a dismissive laugh. 

“Maybe...it helps to have a friend, by your side?” asked the Doctor.

“Well, I suppose that’s possible - if I had a gorgeous friend saving people I could always come along to point out how ridiculous the whole thing is and how ungrateful people are, and laugh at the joke that humanity is.”

“You could do that, and maybe sometimes,” the Doctor said, swallowing as she dropped her gaze to their clasped hands before meeting her eyes once again. “Maybe sometimes...we could just figure out how to do what’s good...together?”

“We could do that,” Missy said, with a slight gasp as tears brimmed in her eyes. “Now look what you’ve gone and done, there’s me trying to be flippant about this and you’re making me _feel things_.”

“I like it when you feel things,” the Doctor said, raising one hand to wipe away Missy’s now falling tears. “That’s good too.”

“Pain isn't good, neither is regret, guilt, sadness,” Missy said. “World domination is easier.”

“I don’t doubt it,” the Doctor said. “But it doesn’t help you, not really. We….um...we could. Us, being together. That would help. I reckon, What do you think? I mean if you don't want to, that’s ok, I don’t mean that I...um...you...or…”

Missy broke her rambling with a kiss as she pulled them both up, embracing as closely as possibly with the small tea table between them, before she pulled back with a laugh. 

“Might stay then, it’s definitely bad to let this garden fall to ruin like this.”

“Yep, best you stay, for the good of the garden,” the Doctor said, clumsily reaching for her hand and almost knocking over the teapot in the process. 

Missy smiled and took her hand, stepping them both away from the table as they stood and looked at the weed filled garden, a small cottage in the distance, so covered by ivy that it was barely distinguishable amidst the trees. Through the dense overgrowth, she could just make out a pathway that would eventually lead straight to it.

“People can be vicious things,” Missy said as her eye followed a tendril of ivy that wound around the steel frame of a swing seat that was almost entirely hidden in the overgrowth.

“I’m sorry, for what happened Missy but I’m proud of you,” the Doctor said. 

Missy tightened her grasp of the Doctor's hand as fresh tears escaped her. Words failed her as she became far too full of emotion to risk speaking, lest she broke into a sob, so she instead lowered her barriers, her mental connection accepted immediately as their minds intertwined with deep need and love and longing, and a promise of an eternity in which they would never truly be alone again. 


End file.
